The 31st and last day of the first month of the year of the Camellia

E. BRANCH ON THE PEMIGEWASSETT R. ALONG THE KANCAMAGUS HWY IN NH

It's Sunday and I guess I am bored and looking through old images. Also fooling around with photo shop with the idea of something that looks to some as a little Remingtonesque.

Of course I could have put that in the title and really made for an unpronounceable sentence or fragment thereof.

Understand, I never claimed to be proficient in the structure of the sentence. I do remember somewhere back there, some English teacher trying to show us how to try to diagram a sentence. The operative word in that sentence is "Try". I also flunked biological science in college which consisted of noting but formulas and diagrams of some kind of weird link between this atom and that neutron or something. And thank the lord for spell check.

This is a pretty river. Even in a fog, produced by snow cover on a warming day at higher altitudes, it is crystal clear. I took a day off from fishing on the big lake to wander across the White Mountains and photograph. It was cold, wet, and a lot of snow on the mountain tops. If fact on some of the higher peaks, the weather closed in such that it was a little scary. This is one of the images I dragged out and I do like it.

The image measures only seven inches tall and seventeen wide, so I will have to create a special size frame for it. I think an antique white oak for the frame with some sepia toning and a simple white mat. Got to look into that.

Now I'm kinda excited about it and no longer bored!

The 30th day of the first month of the year of the Camellia

THE MORNING AFTER!

This is an image I made the morning after a hurricane was downgraded to a tropical storm on North Carolina's outer banks. In fact it is one of the most famous surf fishing spots in the country----"The Point" or the exact elbow of the barrier islands known as the Outer Banks.

This piece is on sale in my new section of the website called "Accents". That again is your spot to purchase ready to hang fine art photography. There are three sections to this print each measuring 10.625" wide and 17.75" tall. When hung in the group it is almost three feet wide by a foot and half tall.

http://skipwillitsfineartphotography.ifp3.com/

We were staying with friends on the island and really sweated having to leave the night before "The morning after".

As it was, the hurricane was downgraded and our vacation plans remained the same. The question the next morning, however, was what to do on a day at the beach with 50 mph winds and rain on a horizontal plain. To me the obvious answer was "The point" to watch the ocean. Normally that spot has so many four wheel drive vehicles that it looks like a Wallmart parking lot on sale day for the first twenty people through the door! Don't get me wrong, nice people but they can smell a bargain from forty miles. But I digress.

There were only two dummies on the beach that day, remarkable in its own right. The guy fishing and myself, and I was the only one to catch anything!

This photo!

The 28th day of the first month of the year of the Camellia

Brown on Brown!

I made this image this morning utilizing the brown water of runoff in the River and last year's cat tails.

This is sort of like making the best of a bad situation. The water is going down, about three or four feet overnight and that is a good thing.

Reminds me of an old George Gobel joke when he asked Johnny Carson if he "Ever had a day when he felt like a pair of brown shoes on a tuxedo?"

So if you have a room that looks like a tuxedo.....I've got the brown shoes for ya!

These, to me, are the brown shoes but the good day today is the tuxedo! Over sixty and I have all the windows open.

I spent the morning checking on the river and shooting in a small community called Olympia here in South Carolina. Going to make a poster for a small show they will do in April. The same format as the Lighthouse posters, but using local sites instead.

The 27th day of the first month of the year of the Camellia

WHAT A DIFFERENCE A DAY MAKES

Walked almost three miles today photographing the Riverwalk on our side of the river and the other one on the Columbia side.

The bottom photo is yesterday and the top is today. River rose about six feet over night due probably to runoff from the upstate rains.

Same spot in both photos. The top one was a little farther away from the bridge for obvious reasons.

No, I didn't swim although it was in the mid fifties today!

Nature is amazing!

The 25th day of the first month of the year of the Camellia

EXERCISE OR SOCIALIZE?

This is one of the all time serious questions concerning mankind.

Forget politics and religion. This is a core question we all need to answer.

Since the weather has warmed here, I am back out on the Riverwalk trying to get my "Exercise" in for the day.

Exercise is good and but so is socializing. There seems to me to be a bit of a conflict betwixt the two.

This is also the Palmetto state, so that explains the photograph I took today.

But back to the perplexing problem. I go to the Riverwalk to get my exercise. Today about a mile and half. I have got to get that back up to three or four a day but that is part of the problem.

The first diversion was a wonderful German fellow with whom I speak for extended periods of time.....all good natured fun. However, it takes about fifteen minutes. So walk for a few hundred yards and talk for fifteen minutes.

Today he was with three other people. One of which had just had heart surgery and was trying to mend himself. Well of course you have to compare injuries, or ailments, or at least medications. That's an age thing my friends. Another ten minutes. I reported that I had had my piggy flu vaccine and the gentlemen said "Oh, that's not good". It seems his doctor said not to do it if you had any kinda heart condition. Of course I had a stint put into my chest last August, so this information was certainly timely....Not to worry!

Then comes along one of the policemen, who ride their golf carts up and down the walkway protecting the innocent. Another ten minutes of conversation. I told him that a friend of mine in Maryland had gotten his first deer of the year using a 2009 Hyundai Sante Fe and I had congratulated him on his choice of rifles. Duh! And I thought that it was some kind of new Remington fire arm.

Just got a text message which solves my short term problem with all that. Cayce Riverwalk is now closed until further notice because of high water and flooding.

Boy the Gods conspire to keep us from our due diligence!

At any rate, it is good to be walking and photographing again.

Even if it did take me an hour and half to walk only a mile and a half. Tomorrow I swim!

The 23rd day of the first month of the year of the Camellia

A NEW ADDITION TO THE PRODUCT LINE

This image is only one of the additions to my new product line called "Accents".

This group will provide ready to hang images suited to home and office decor. All images on the web site are of course available in these formats, but there will soon be a separate section there for the "Accent" presentations.

A lonely tree right after a snow storm which coated the limps with soft and fluffy envelope. The pronounced the shadows were created by nature and an early morning light. I added the sepia like tones to the image and framed it in a matte black frame.

This frame measures 11.5 inches square holding a 5x5 inch image. It is a true and sophisticated highlight meant to hang in those spots which are smaller but awkwardly bare. The double white mat with black core is acid free. The image is recessed below the mats on it's own mount which provides the illusion of additional depth. It is what I call "Value added" matting-----a totally different, refined, and creative look.

The central core of the framed "Accent" images will be this size, but all sizes and custom sizes are available as well. If you have any questions please feel free to email me. I will work with you to fulfill your home decor needs for tasteful wall art at reasonable pricing.

The 17th day of the first month of the new year of the Camellia

LONELY AND COLD!

I have always like this image and fooling around with a sepia tone seems to work. The tree is somewhere in the environs of Eastern Neck Island National Wildlife Reserve in Kent County Maryland. The morning after a pretty good snow storm or the day of, I cannot remember which.

It seems that the advancement of the southern face of the new Equatorial Glacier has been temporary halted.

Sixty seven degrees here today after an all night rain.

Life is good is you're a weed looking to sprout in my front yard!

The 16th day of the first month of the year of the Camellia

I GOT MY PIGGY FLU SHOT!

Our local Cert team aided and abetted the H1N1 free Inoculation day here in Lexington County today.

The rain held off for most of the day and we stuck a great number of people who showed up to take advantage of the freebies.

I must say that the entire day was very well planned.....well managed and very successful.

A great combination of county employees and local volunteers proved what can be done with expertise and enthusiasm.

Well done!

The 15th day of the first month of the year or the Camellia

FLOATING FRAME PRESENTATIONS

This is a glicee fine art photographic print presented on a floating frame. The image is printed digitally on an Epson machine using Epson papers and inks. The print has been sprayed with a UV protectorate and finally with a Poly coating which helps to eliminate scratching.

Furthermore, the print can be lightly washed with a damp cloth for cleaning.
Who would have thought…a washable fine art photograph!

“The term ‘Glicee’ was coined in 1991 by Jack Duganne, a printmaker working in the field, to represent any inkjet-based digital print used as fine art. The intent of that name was to distinguish commonly known industrial ‘Iris proofs’ from the type of fine art prints artists were producing on those same types of printers. The name was originally applied to fine art prints created on Iris printers in a process invented in the early 1990s. The term has since come to mean any high quality ink-jet print and is often used in galleries and print shops to denote such high quality prints.” (This definition was quoted from Wikipedia)

These vary in size from 4.25x7" up to 13x18". The depth of the black border is 1.625” which allows the print to stand away from your wall by that amount. Thus, the image appears to be floating. Mounting to the wall could not be easier…simply place two small nails on a level plain and the frame will hang forever. The accompanying image was taken on an angle to show the side of the frame. The is no mat or glass so shipping is easy and hanging is even easier. Just two nails on a level plane and they will hang forever. And finally, buying is even easier. Just email and use my website to choose your images.

http://skipwillitsfineartphotography.ifp3.com/

The 14th day of the first month of the year of the Camellia

The Chesapeake Bay Bridge

The 13th day of the first month of the year of the Camellia

HUNTING ISLAND LIGHTHOUSE, SC

FLOATING FRAME

The 12th day of the first month of the year of the Camellia

THE GERVAIS STREET BRIDGE

COLUMBIA, SC

The tenth day of the first month of the year of the Camellia

AN EXPLOSION FROM THE CENTER OF THE UNIVERSE

The 9th day of the first month of the year of the Camellia

I just had to do it!

It's twenty-two degrees here on the south face in central South Carolina.

It's snowing in Florida from Jacksonville to Orlando this morning.

Thank God for global warming or we'd all be in deep trouble!

This palm is on the beach in Barbados, a much warmer clime right now. Sure hope that the glacier doesn't reach that far south.

The eighth day of the first month of the year of the Camellia

Whilst going through the files to fill a request for a publisher in upstate New York, I came across this image I made a year or so ago.

I am pretty sure that this is a photo of a rock in a stream in New Hampshire. The clarity of the water would argue for that location. It is probably a stream in the White Mountains just off the Kankamagus Highway (Rt. 12) which runs through the southern portion of the White Mountain National Forest. Spectacular country.

A trout fisherman would know that the area just in front of the rock, or upstream, is an area where the current is momentarily slack. Then the water sweeps along each side of the rock leaving another slack area just behind the rock. In fact, the current directly behind the rock actually will flow in an opposing direction to the main current. Trout will lie in such slack water spots, beside the main current, so they can pick off food coming down stream. That way they don't expend a great deal of energy holding themselves in the faster moving water.

I know, TMI (too much information).

But I like the image and now I want to go fishing. If I wait, I think I can just drop a line off the face of the rapidly developing equatorial glacier, probably somewhere in northern Florida.

The 7th day of the first month of the year of the Camellia

The southern front of the advancing equatorial glacier continues to encroach on our environs here in South Carolina............22 degrees this morning at 7:30 am. Not bad by our northern friends standards but a little prolonged for our more sensitive southern gentlemen and ladies.

I got to thinking about those poor folk that have to be outside to work in the cold and realize that I just could not physically do that any more. I huddle with the two dogs who are reluctant to venture outside to do their business. They will then do so only with the promise of a treat. And just in time the cockatiel decides to molt-----good timing bird!

It must be nice to be just so simple that you don't have to go out into bad weather just to pee, Oh that's right, that's us. And you can huddle in the middle of a pile of blankets all day until it is absolutely necessary.........or until some moronic caretaker holds a cookie in front of your nose. The same idiot tolerates your feathers all over the floor, and is forced to chase a vacuum cleaner around daily on your behalf. Talk about keeping your life simple! The pets have got that done....maybe we ought to take a lesson. Although I have no interest in molting.

At any rate, these ramblings led me to some old file photos about inclement and possibly cold weather. This shot of the Coast Guard defending our borders and was taken in the winter, in Ocean City Maryland, and in heavy seas. So heavy in fact that we cannot see the huge stone jetty which is directly under the boat. This is the inlet at Ocean City, Maryland and a nor'easter was pounding the shoreline for three days. That's what nor'easters do...three days of blowing, cold nasty winds, rain snow, sleet, and significant beach erosion. This year the middle of the country is being pounded, the north east has gotten it's share, and even the south has had a taste of the new equatorial glacier. Dress warmly those that provide our services and protect our borders and know that your efforts are appreciated by those of us huddled inside the kennel. The pets just may have more common sense that the rest of us at times.

The 6th day of the first month of the year of the Camellia

"ACCENTS"

Here's southern for you ---- from the south face of the new equatorial glacier. Twenty-one degrees here in South Carolina and twenty-nine in Caribou, Maine.

Go figure!

I am "fixin" to get back into the online auctions/market places and in fact have reactivated my old e-Bay account. I have placed some things on Face Book marketing. Have found no victims yet, but they are out there and this approach will be expanded upon.

http://cgi3.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewUserPage&userid=skipwillitsphotography

http://apps.facebook.com/marketplace/seller/10013044/?listing_id=1739007120

My market theory for 2010 is that selling art will continue to be just OK to modestly postitive!

Most retail type business last year were down about a third. I don't see much change to that other than perhaps a small uptick----the media will continue to harp on unemployment being high and continue to try to scare most folks who listen to the evening news and read the failing newspapers. But remember they are biased and with 2010 elections coming up, the media will have to start "Good mouthing" the economy in order the get their favorites re-elected. There are some bright spots, the market is up, unemployment numbers will likely flatten for a while, and house sales have been improving. With that said, I feel that people will be starting to consider small to medium size art for decorative purposes in their homes and offices. As long as the art is good and the price is affordable some sales can be made this year.

Hence, "Accents"

One of the first of what is a new direction or emphasis for me is the floating frame. One such presentation is pictured here of an image called "Translucent". You've seen this image before on this blog. This was made in the Alligator Farm in St. Augustine, Florida. While the place has been there for a long time and there are a lot of alligators, there also is a great wild bird rookery. Their web page is http://www.alligatorfarm.com/. This bird was taken during the mating season on his/her way back to the nest. This is a great egret which is one of the larger of the egrets and during the mating season the lores, or area around the eyes, turn a bright green. The prime time to be there to photograph these birds is from March through sometime in June. There are any number of different species perched in the trees, on nests, and even walking on the railing of the boardwalk. The specific allure of this image are the almost translucent wings, the bright green lores, and a very light grey background. The lores is that area around they eye. This is an instant attention grabber of natural content on any wall.

These are glicee fine art photographic prints presented on a floating frame. The print is printed digitally on an Epson machine using Epson papers and inks. The print has been sprayed with a UV protectorate and finally with a Poly coating which helps to eliminate scratching. Furthermore, the print can be lightly washed with a damp cloth for cleaning.

Who would have thought…a washable fine art photograph!

“The term ‘Glicee’ was coined in 1991 by Jack Duganne, a print maker working in the field, to represent any ink jet-based digital print used as fine art. The intent of that name was to distinguish commonly known industrial ‘Iris proofs’ from the type of fine art prints artists were producing on those same types of printers. The name was originally applied to fine art prints created on Iris printers in a process invented in the early 1990s. The term has since come to mean any high quality ink-jet print and is often used in galleries and print shops to denote such high quality prints.” (This definition was quoted from Wikipedia)

The size of the print is 17.75” tall and 11.25” wide. The depth of the black border is 1.625” which allows the print to stand away from your wall by that amount. Thus, the image appears to be floating. Mounting to the wall could not be easier…simply place two small nails on a level plain and the frame will hang level forever. Sizes of the images will of course vary and the images themselves can all be seen on my website which will eventually have a specific category for "Accents".

Stay tuned!

THE FIRST DAY OF THE FIRST MONTH OF THE YEAR OF THE CAMELLIA

Welcome in the new year-----the "Year of the Camellia" with the first image of the year.

This past year certainly lived up to the name I gave it last January. The first picture of 2009 was the excrement of an owl, OP, or owl pellet. Not a particularly good symbol or year, but one we all got through.

This new year starting is portrayed by the waning beauty of the opened flower of 2009 and the emerging bud of 2010. That promises us better things.

Thus the first image of 2010, my back yard flowers which bloom in December and January.

An image of beauty of beauty but also one of the resolution to make better things happen.

I resolve to make 2010 live up to that image and wish nothing less for you my loyal and brilliant readers.

Happy New Year!